RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–At least 1,300 Southern Baptist volunteers are needed to help spark spiritual revival through two nationwide evangelistic campaigns planned in Japan and South Korea later this year.
“We need some people who believe in miracles to go with us,” said W.H. “Dub” Jackson, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s partnership evangelism coordinator for Asia.
Baptist leaders in Japan are seeking 300 volunteers to help with crusades in at least 30 key churches in that country June 21-July 3. Baptists in South Korea are calling for 1,000 volunteers to join them in leading revivals in about 100 churches Nov. 1-14.
“If God is leading — and he is — no one will ever get to Korea or Japan without Satan coming up with a thousand reasons we should not, or seemingly cannot go,” said Jackson, a former IMB missionary in Japan. “Satan is especially strong in opposition when so much depends upon our going.”
Baptists in both countries — along with Jackson and his wife, Doris — are praying God will use the campaigns to bring revival in Japan and South Korea. They also are praying God will use Southern Baptist volunteers to spark revival across the United States after they return from the projects in Asia.
“The fastest route for revival in the U.S.A. is through obedience to our Lord and an unselfish commitment to world witnessing now,” Jackson said. “If we should decide to forget the world and concentrate on our own country because of our great need for revival, it would be spiritual suicide.”
Meanwhile, Jackson noted that Baptist officials in South Korea are concerned because their convention — Asia’s fastest-growing Baptist convention in recent years — has stopped growing. When convention leaders asked him if Southern Baptists could send 1,000 volunteers to help them in a nationwide evangelistic campaign, “I said, ‘Absolutely not! But if God is leading in that way, he will give us the victory. By his power and by the miracles that he alone can give, it will happen.'”
Jackson added: “Since World War II and the Korean War, we have prayed and asked God for open doors in Japan and Korea. God has heard, and the door is open. We must respond now if we are to be faithful to our Lord and obedient to his command to go be his witnesses.”
For both projects, teams of six to 10 volunteers — including a preacher and a musician — are needed. “It is always best if the teams can come from the same church with their pastor, but the need is so urgent that we will take volunteers from across the [Southern Baptist] convention and put them together to work as teams,” Jackson said.
What are the qualifications for participating? “If you’re a Christian and you have a desire to tell the world what Christ means to you, then you are qualified and greatly needed,” Jackson said. “You don’t need experience — just a compassionate, loving heart and a determination to share Christ.”
Trip costs are $2,875 for Japan and $2,850 for South Korea. Pastors and laypeople of all ages are needed for both projects. Jackson said commitments from volunteers are needed as soon as possible but that the trips won’t close out until a month before the departure dates.
For more information or to sign up for either project, contact the Jacksons by phone at (915) 698-8480; fax, (915) 698-4000; or e-mail, [email protected]. Their mailing address is 2426 Spyglass Hill Court, Abilene, TX 79606.
